"A View from the Box Office
When you think of your theater’s box office, you may think of those nice folks who answer the phones, stuff envelopes, & (most importantly!) process your comps.
Like most who have sought to make a living in theater, I’m sure you’ve paid y
our dues and sold some tickets. But some of us get sucked in, choose to stay, and make ticketing our careers. For those of us in the industry, it’s more than just processing comps.
Below, I’ve listed some common conversations I’ve been involved with and which are fairly universal across the theater and ticketing worlds. So if you’ve ever wondered what that self-proclaimed “ticketing dork” in your organization does, read on. In just these 4 examples, you’ll see how ticketing professionals work with, and think through, situations involving production, communications, development, IT, finance, marketing, and (always) the audience.
1. “For Cabaret, we’re going to replace the front row with café tables!”
· How do you communicate this to all the patrons, in all of the front row seats, for all 42 performances?
· What do you do if the café table seats 2 and you have a group of 3?
· Is the seating raked enough that the folks in the 2nd row can see?
· Are these now “premium seats” that we should charge more for?
· And my favorite question EVERY patron asked...“Do the chairs have arms?”
2. “The run of the show has been shortened by 2 weeks.” You need to move people into earlier performances. Who gets moved 1st and claims the best/most comparable seats?
· The person who renewed earliest?
· The person who’s been subscribing the longest?
· The 7-person group? They’re harder to just squeeze in just anywhere, so move them first, then handle the couples and singles, right?
· But wait…what if those singles attend together?
· And has Devo checked to see if there’s a major donor affected because maybe THEY should be moved first…?
3. “Tonight’s performance has been cancelled due to weather/gas leak/car accident/Emmy nomination.”
· If it’s rescheduled (i.e. you still have 42 performance of Footloose), you can keep people in their same seats. Configure your ticket scanners to accept barcodes from the original date. Adjust your reporting so that when royalties data is pulled for a range of dates, you get info from when the event was held, not the original date.
· If it’s cancelled (i.e. you now have just 41 performances of Footloose) you’ll need to reschedule and reseat everyone in other performances. Adjust your reporting, your capacities, average attendance, and maximum possible income. Figure out how to absorb and report on the price difference when that weekday-only STUDENT-priced ticket can only reschedule for a Friday night. And deal with situations where patrons cannot make another date or are from out of town.
4. “We’re thinking of doing dynamic pricing.” Think airline pricing - the fuller a flight, the higher the price. Easy to say, “Once we’re at X% capacity, we raise our prices $X.” How do you implement it?
· Is it PAID capacity or do comps factor in? (Can I comp out the house to raise single ticket prices?)
· If I raise my FULL price, do I adjust the half-price, student, military, senior, etc?
· How does this affect my group pricing? What if a group cancels and our capacity percentage goes down?
· How long will it take to run the capacity report? (Think 8 shows a week over a full season…that’s a lot of numbers to crunch!)
· How long will it take to turn off & on the new prices?
· How long for the web prices to clear the cache & go live?
· There are programs that interface with ticketing software (www.Qcue.net). Are they worth your investment? Or should you do it manually?"
When you think of your theater’s box office, you may think of those nice folks who answer the phones, stuff envelopes, & (most importantly!) process your comps.
Like most who have sought to make a living in theater, I’m sure you’ve paid y
our dues and sold some tickets. But some of us get sucked in, choose to stay, and make ticketing our careers. For those of us in the industry, it’s more than just processing comps.Below, I’ve listed some common conversations I’ve been involved with and which are fairly universal across the theater and ticketing worlds. So if you’ve ever wondered what that self-proclaimed “ticketing dork” in your organization does, read on. In just these 4 examples, you’ll see how ticketing professionals work with, and think through, situations involving production, communications, development, IT, finance, marketing, and (always) the audience.
1. “For Cabaret, we’re going to replace the front row with café tables!”
· How do you communicate this to all the patrons, in all of the front row seats, for all 42 performances?
· What do you do if the café table seats 2 and you have a group of 3?
· Is the seating raked enough that the folks in the 2nd row can see?
· Are these now “premium seats” that we should charge more for?
· And my favorite question EVERY patron asked...“Do the chairs have arms?”
2. “The run of the show has been shortened by 2 weeks.” You need to move people into earlier performances. Who gets moved 1st and claims the best/most comparable seats?
· The person who renewed earliest?
· The person who’s been subscribing the longest?
· The 7-person group? They’re harder to just squeeze in just anywhere, so move them first, then handle the couples and singles, right?
· But wait…what if those singles attend together?
· And has Devo checked to see if there’s a major donor affected because maybe THEY should be moved first…?
3. “Tonight’s performance has been cancelled due to weather/gas leak/car accident/Emmy nomination.”
· If it’s rescheduled (i.e. you still have 42 performance of Footloose), you can keep people in their same seats. Configure your ticket scanners to accept barcodes from the original date. Adjust your reporting so that when royalties data is pulled for a range of dates, you get info from when the event was held, not the original date.
· If it’s cancelled (i.e. you now have just 41 performances of Footloose) you’ll need to reschedule and reseat everyone in other performances. Adjust your reporting, your capacities, average attendance, and maximum possible income. Figure out how to absorb and report on the price difference when that weekday-only STUDENT-priced ticket can only reschedule for a Friday night. And deal with situations where patrons cannot make another date or are from out of town.
4. “We’re thinking of doing dynamic pricing.” Think airline pricing - the fuller a flight, the higher the price. Easy to say, “Once we’re at X% capacity, we raise our prices $X.” How do you implement it?
· Is it PAID capacity or do comps factor in? (Can I comp out the house to raise single ticket prices?)
· If I raise my FULL price, do I adjust the half-price, student, military, senior, etc?
· How does this affect my group pricing? What if a group cancels and our capacity percentage goes down?
· How long will it take to run the capacity report? (Think 8 shows a week over a full season…that’s a lot of numbers to crunch!)
· How long will it take to turn off & on the new prices?
· How long for the web prices to clear the cache & go live?
· There are programs that interface with ticketing software (www.Qcue.net). Are they worth your investment? Or should you do it manually?"
Hello director of comprable seating!
ReplyDeleteWhat I have found, in Box Office Culture, is that there is a HUGE difference between part time box and full time box. Part time seems more disconnected. They don't care as much if Mr. So-and-so has similar seats when the show is canceled, he has some sort of seats, right? Full time care more because chances are, they ARE going to be the one dealing with an upset Mr. So-and-so when he comes in and is in the 20th row on the side when he normally has 3rd row center. And if they aren't, then the coworker who does deal with them will chastize them for it.
Oh now I could rant about (and say how much I enjoyed!) Box Office Life.
Tammy did put Arena in line for winning B.O.O.T.Y! If you ever got comps at Arena in the past 3 years, chances are she had her hands in it!